Full-term pregnancy may not always be best

A study that shows the use of drugs to delay preterm labor may be harmful challenges the current view that "keeping the baby inside longer must be a good thing", say experts.

The opinion appears as an editorial in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal in response to a study that appears in the same edition.

According to the Dutch study, preterm labor is the main cause of perinatal illness and death in the developed world.

Drugs, known as tocolytics, are used to delay delivery for up to 48 hours.

This is primarily to give doctors time to administer steroids to speed up the baby's lung development, transfer the mother to a center with a neonatal intensive care unit, or both.

The researchers found the overall incidence of adverse reactions to a tocolytic drug was low. However, they found increased problems when the tocolytics were delivered in a multi-drug regimen.

Yoga may help one restore sense of smell

Jala Neti, or nasal cleansing using warm salty water, is a very ancient technique which has been passed on for thousands of years by the Yogis ("Researchers" is one of the meanings of "Yogis") for both physical as well as deeper spiritual benefits.

This is one of many videos available on youtube shortly explaining Jal Neti.

Those who take up Jala Neti find their sense of smell improves. To what degree and in what time frame this occurs would depend on the extent to which the olfactory nerves are damaged and how often one uses the technique.

Salt is a great neutraliser. It is one of nature's greatest remedies. But it may take a while for it to do its thing and for your smelling nerves to recover from years of medicinal abuse.

Neti is one possibility to help restore balance to the membranes and nerves of the nose. It is suggested to practice Jal Neti and, as the symptoms improve, begin lessening the use of medications followed.

Disgust, moral and physical Hard-Wired alike

Disgust over an unfair or immoral social situation is hard-wired into the human body as strongly as the reaction to a foul taste, according to research published in the journal Science.

By studying the electrical activity of a muscle in the upper lip in both physically and morally offensive situations, scientists determined that disgust is equally strong in both cases.

"People use the term disgust in terms of morally offensive situations," said Adam Anderson, a professor of neuroscience at the University of Toronto and a co-author on the study. "Our study looked at whether this reaction was genuine disgust or just a metaphor."

For both sexes the most active region was the parietal lobe that deals with visual perception, spatial orientation and information processing, but it was focused on the right side of the brain in men while both sides participated in women.

Yoga Nidra may help improve physical abilities

Visualization techniques from practises such as Meditation and Yoga Nidra used as strategies and interventions such as in Motor Imagery (MI) or mental rehearsal provide contrasting reports on the level of effectiveness of MI in learning new motor skills.

There is a consensus that MI can lead to improvement in performance used in combination with physical practise because it shares similar neural mechanisms with cortical preparatory processes used in motor control.

Functional brain imaging studies indicate several cortical and sub-cortical areas active during actual motor performance are also active during imagination or mental rehearsal of the movements.

Get and read the complete research paper here.

Discovery Could Help Adults Grow New Teeth

Ever wonder why sharks get several rows of teeth and people only get one? Some geneticists did, and their discovery could spur work to help adults one day grow new teeth when their own wear out.

A single gene appears to be in charge, preventing additional tooth formation in species destined for a limited set. When the scientists bred mice that lacked that gene, the rodents developed extra teeth next to their first molars -- backups like sharks and other non-mammals grow, University of Rochester scientists reported Thursday.

"It's exciting. We've got a clue what to do," said Dr. Songtao Shi of the University of Southern California School of Dentistry, who said the Rochester discovery will help his own research into how to grow a new tooth from scratch.

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